{"id":12312,"date":"2020-07-25T23:38:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T15:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-orbit-traces-cause-of-launcherone-engine-failure-to-propellant-line\/"},"modified":"2020-07-25T23:38:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T15:38:55","slug":"virgin-orbit-traces-cause-of-launcherone-engine-failure-to-propellant-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-orbit-traces-cause-of-launcherone-engine-failure-to-propellant-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Orbit traces cause of LauncherOne engine failure to propellant line"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Virgin Orbit\u2019s first LauncherOne rocket ignites its engine after release from a Boeing 747 carrier jet during the company\u2019s first orbital launch attempt May 25. Credit: Virgin Orbit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An engine failure that cut short the first test flight of Virgin Orbit\u2019s air-dropped LauncherOne rocket in May was caused by a faulty propellant feed line, the company\u2019s CEO said this week.<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit\u2019s first orbital launch attempt May 25 ended seconds after the rocket\u2019s release from a Boeing 747 carrier jet over the Pacific Ocean. Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit\u2019s CEO, said Wednesday that engineers traced the cause of the premature shutdown of the first stage\u2019s engine to a break in a propellant feed line.<\/p>\n

The 70-foot-long (21-meter) LauncherOne rocket is designed to place small satellites into orbit. The first test flight of the air-launched rocket in May was the culmination of years of development, including numerous engine tests and test flights of the modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft.<\/p>\n

Hart said Wednesday that Virgin Orbit, part of Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Group, collected enough data on the flight to prove the rocket\u2019s aerodynamic control algorithms, and to determine the cause of the first stage engine failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moments after dropping the rocket \u2014 in that data \u2013 -we verified our entire aerodynamic database as we dropped the rocket off the airplane,\u201d Hart said Wednesday in a webinar with the Space Generation Advisory Council, an advocacy organization for students and young space industry professionals. \u201cWe verified our control algorithms as our fins worked really hard to control the rocket through the turbulent flow around the airplane, and into the steady state flow as the rocket dropped through the air for about four or five seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rocket detected that it was time to start the engine, and it went through its pressurization and startup routine, started the engine and lifted up its nose, and pulled up pitch and traveled along our trajectory to target the orbit,\u201d Hart said. \u201cSo we were pretty stoked at that point that we had, at that moment, proven all of the new aspects of air launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LauncherOne rocket is the first air-launched orbital-class vehicle with liquid-fueled engines. Northrop Grumman\u2019s Pegasus rocket, which is also deployed from an airplane, uses solid rocket motors.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few seconds later, unfortunately, and to our disappointment, we had our component break in our engine system,\u201d Hart said. \u201cIt was a high pressure feed line, and LOX (liquid oxygen) stopped going into the engine, and our flight was terminated. So we left both incredibly excited, incredibly thrilled, and a bit disappointed that we didn\u2019t get into orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LauncherOne rocket\u2019s first stage is powered by Virgin Orbit\u2019s NewtonThree engine. Fed by kerosene and liquid oxygen, the engine can generate about 73,500 pounds of thrust during the first three minutes of the launch sequence.<\/p>\n

An upper stage NewtonFour engine is designed to finish the job of placing satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n

Hart said Virgin Orbit has identified a fix for the liquid oxygen feed line problem.<\/p>\n

On a first flight, on any flight in spaceflight, data is so critical,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had four ground stations tracking us, and I\u2019m really glad we did.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got our next rocket in final integration right now,\u201d Hart continued. \u201cIt should be leaving the factory in the next few weeks and heading into launch processing while we make some modifications to the engine to strengthen up those parts. And we\u2019ll be targeting our next flight before the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A view of Virgin Orbit\u2019s LauncherOne vehicle under the left wing of a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Credit: Virgin Orbit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgin Orbit staged the first LauncherOne demonstration flight out of Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where ground crews loaded the rocket onto a pylon under the left wing of the company\u2019s carrier aircraft, nicknamed \u201cCosmic Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking off from Mojave, the Boeing 747 carrier aircraft flew west, then turned south over the Pacific Ocean en route to a drop point roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) west-southwest of Long Beach at an altitude of around 35,000 feet (10,700 meters). Two pilots and two launch engineers were aboard the carrier jet, which pitched up to an angle of nearly 30 degrees before releasing the LauncherOne rocket.<\/p>\n

Before the May test flight, Hart said the data gathered on the first launch would anchor engineering models that have, so far, only relied on testing performed on the ground or in the atmosphere. Hart said this week that the performance of the 747 carrier aircraft, its release system, and the airborne ignition of the LauncherOne rocket proved key parts of the system Virgin Orbit developed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not easy making the modifications (to the 747) to put a big pylon on the wing, and modify the wing, and all the electronics, cabling and plumbing and pressurization,\u201d Hart said. \u201cAll of that was very complex. I mean, we had to develop two vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three hooks hold the rocket to the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, which was modified from earlier use as a passenger airliner by Virgin Orbit\u2019s sister company Virgin Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving now gone through the flight test program, we\u2019ve sort of worked through the development and verified it,\u201d Hart said Wednesday. \u201cSo it\u2019s a very reliable system. The whole point of the system we created was to create it as simple as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit, and its subsidiary VOX Space focused on the U.S. military satellite launch market, has secured deals to launch small payloads for NASA, the Pentagon and commercial operators. The company has confirmed missions to fly from bases at Mojave and Guam, and could fly from runways at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Britain, Japan and other sites in the future.<\/p>\n

The flexibility provided by flying from multiple airports around the world is a key advantage, Virgin Orbit says.<\/p>\n

Before the May test flight, Hart said Virgin Orbit has initially set a launch price of about $12 million per LauncherOne flight, but that could be divided among multiple customers if their satellites are light enough. The LauncherOne vehicle can deliver a payload of up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) to a low-altitude equatorial orbit, according to Virgin Orbit.<\/p>\n

The debut test flight capped years of development of Virgin Orbit\u2019s small satellite launch system. The effort to develop the LauncherOne rocket began as a project of sister company Virgin Galactic, which focuses on the suborbital space tourism market.<\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic says it first studied the LauncherOne concept in 2007, and development began in earnest in 2012. Engineers in 2015 scrapped initial plans to drop the rocket from Virgin Galactic\u2019s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, and kicked off development of a redesigned system using a 747 jumbo jet taken from Virgin Atlantic\u2019s commercial airline fleet.<\/p>\n

Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit was established in 2017 as a spinoff of Virgin Galactic. The company currently has around 500 full-time employees.<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit\u2019s investors include Branson\u2019s Virgin Group and Mubadala, Abu Dhabi\u2019s sovereign wealth fund.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Orbit\u2019s first LauncherOne rocket ignites its engine after release from a Boeing 747 carrier jet during the company\u2019s first orbital launch attempt May 25. Credit: Virgin Orbit An engine failure that cut short the first test flight of Virgin Orbit\u2019s air-dropped LauncherOne rocket in May was caused by a faulty propellant feed line, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1917,291,1932,1608,2147,25,1550,2148],"class_list":["post-12312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing-747","tag-commercial-space","tag-cosmic-girl","tag-cubesats","tag-dan-hart","tag-launch","tag-launcherone","tag-launcherone-launch-demo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}